This will be my interpretation of what happens after the meeting at the pitstop in 3x06.
Spoilers ahead, if I write any.
Happy Reading!
Beth tried her best to keep up her façade, but the second she sits down in the passenger seat of the mustang, it's as if all the emotions finally caught up to her. Between her parents, the murder, and the JSA falling apart because Courtney is training Cameron; Beth has had enough.
She tries her best to push away the tears, but after watching Courtney walk away from the team broke her. Beth wishes there was someone she could turn to, but there isn't. Courtney wasn't an option, Yolanda is too caught up with Cindy, and Rick…Beth rests her head against the cool window. Rick—she couldn't vent to him, not with his hourglass still being broken. Tonight it seemed to work fine, which was great. But also not great since he used it to go after Cindy. Which was not Beth's intention when she called Rick for help. She knew he was close by just in case Yolanda was caught, but she didn't expect him to turn so quickly.
Really thinking about it, Beth noticed that Rick was acting much different today than normal…He seemed more confident, he was more talkative, but she also noticed how much he kept staring at her. She never felt so vulnerable under someone's gaze before, and it wasn't unwelcome, but she knows there is something off about him. Before her thoughts could wander, She could see Rick making his way around to the driver side door after locking the door to The Pitstop. She quickly wipes at her face and adjusts her glasses before Rick opens the door and slides in.
She can feel him looking at her, his hazel eyes analyzing her. She knows he doesn't know what's been brewing within her, and how much the events of the past few weeks have truly been affecting her, but she can tell he knows something is wrong. And she hopes he doesn't mention anything. All it would take is a small sympathetic glance from Rick and she'd be gone. He has no idea how her home life has been like; telling her parents to basically fuck off was not something you tell your best friend that is parentless. If anything, Yolanda seems to be the only one noticing that she's going through something. But let's face it, Beth's feelings and homelife are the least of their worries.
"You ready?" He starts the car, letting it roar to life for a few seconds. Rick watches her a little more closely and he can see she's avoiding his gaze. Part of him saddens seeing her upset, but he knows it because of Courtney, what else could she be upset about?
Beth nods her head and takes a breath before answering. "Yeah, I'm ready." Beth fastens her seatbelt and rests her head against the window watching as the town passes them by.
After a few minutes of driving Rick's patience starts to run thin. His grip on the steering wheel tightens and his rapid taps on the wheels increase in pace. He knows there something up with Beth but he doesn't know why she isn't talking his ear off. Or going on about what just happened at the garage. Just utter silence.
"Beth, you're too quiet after everything that just happened." Rick pulls up to a red light. "What's up?"
Beth closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "I'm fine. Super actually!" Beth wanted to palm her forehead in frustration. Rick makes a face at her and starts to drive when the light turns green. Even she doesn't seem convinced of her own words.
"Yeah…okay." Rick says slowly, not believing her one bit. "Look," He runs a hand through his hair, "Things were intense back there and I know it's going to be a change with Sylvester in charge, but maybe it's for the best." He takes a quick glance out of the corner of his eye. She was still looking ahead like she was afraid to look at him.
She pretends to listen to Rick, but all she can focus on is getting home and letting out a big cry.
The rest of the ride is spent in silence. Rick eventually pulls up in front of Beth's house and shuts of the engine. Before Beth could bolt from the car, Rick lays a hand on her arm to stop her.
"Beth," He sounds tired. "Please talk to me…"
Mustering up all the strength she has left, Beth says, "I'm fine, really. It's just been a long week and I'm just tired." She unbuckles her seatbelt and turns to Rick. He's wearing a frown only Beth can categorize as one of hurt and sadness. But she shakes it off and gives him a soft smile, hoping it will convince him everything is alright. "Really, I'm okay. Today was just a lot."
Rick studies her for a moment, his hazel eyes analyzing her like there's no tomorrow. Eventually he looks away and nods his head. "Okay. Fine." Beth flinches slightly at his curt tone.
Beth opens the door and steps outside. Before shutting the door she leans down one last time. "Rick, I promise. I'm okay. Don't be a worry wart."
Rick smirks a little at her word choice and nods. "I'll leave it alone for now, but we are going to talk eventually."
Beth can feel the back of her throat tightening and the sting of tears threatening to fall. She waves at him and shuts the door before hurriedly walking up her driveway and into her house.
After gently closing the front door shut, and locking up, Beth kicks off her shoes and places her bag on the sofa. Quickly checking in to make sure her parents are both sound asleep, Beth heads upstairs to her room.
After what seems to be the longest day ever, Beth falls back onto her bed and clutches a pillow to her chest. She wishes she could've told Rick everything but she couldn't. It wasn't fair. She didn't have anyone to turn to and she knew she could talk to her parents, but after everything that happened, it's best not to have them involved.
Squeezing her pillow one last time, Beth tosses it and pulls herself out of bed long enough to pick out her favorite lavender pjs and head to the bathroom to brush her teeth and go to sleep.
When she returns to her room, she walks over to her desk to make sure her goggles and laptop were in view, just in case of any late night calls for an emergency. As she's about to turn off her lamp, she hears a slight tap at her window. She stares at it in confusion, not entirely sure what it could be. Earlier that day Yolanda had scared her senseless when she came jumping in through her window.
Grabbing the closest item to her (an old science fair trophy), Beth walks slowly to the window. As she approaches she hears another light tap on the glass. Her eyes widen in panic and knows she can't run to her goggles without whomever at the window seeing her. She moves to the side out of view and quickly opens the blinds and lifts the trophy.
"Beth! It's me!" Rick whisper yells. "Open the window." Beth's mouth drops open in surprise as she sees Rick holding onto her window ledge. She quickly places down the trophy and opens up the window. Rick climbs over the window sill and drops down into her room while Beth stares at him in disbelief.
"Why? How…" Complete confusion passes through her and the amused look Rick is giving her isn't helping. "I thought you went home."
Rick tilts his head down and looks up at her bashfully. After he dropped her off he couldn't shake this feeling that she needed him.
"Cute pjs." He says instead and plops down on her bed. He pats the space next to him, inviting her to sit down. She feels her face heat at the comment, but follows to sit next to him anyways.
"You still didn't answer my question." Beth says. "Why are you here and how did you get all the way up to my room?" Beth glances at his chest where she can still see the outline of his hourglass through his yellow hoodie. "And why are you still wearing the hourglass?"
"Whoa whoa whoa, slow it down there Chapel." He kicks off his shoes and crosses his sweat pant clad legs on the bed making himself comfortable. Beth takes note of this. This was Rick's first time in her bedroom and he already seemed comfortable and not awkward like he would be in a situation like this. Beth felt red flags going off in the back of her mind, but it seems like Rick doesn't want to be the center of the conversation.
Beth shifts to face Rick, one leg tucked while the other hangs off the bed. "Rick, why did you come back?"
He was doing it again, looking at her that way that makes her feel like she's the only person in the room. Which was true, she is the only person in the room, but having 100 percent of his attention makes her stomach flutter.
"I want to know what's wrong." He plainly states. He leans back against her pillows waiting for an answer. Beth tries to think of an excuse, but her body was already reacting for her. The tears fell without thought, she knew it would take one single act of kindness from Rick to be her undoing.
"Oh, Beth." Rick reaches out and pulls her to him. She wraps her arms around his torso and buries her head in his chest. "Shhhh, it'll be okay." He whispers as he wraps his arms around her. He's mindful not to hold her too tight knowing his hourglass is still turned. A moment of anger passes through him for not taking it off before coming back here, but he knew he'd need it to get to her window, but he also knew he could've got up there all on his own. He just didn't want to turn it over, he finally felt powerful again. He felt like he was in control and things were right for once.
She sniffled, "I'm sorry. Its j-just that-t—" she tries to calm down before trying to speak again. She takes a moment and continues. "I just didn't want to burden you with my p-problems." She can feel Rick pulling her closer to him, her head rest right next to where she can see the faint glow of the hourglass through his sweatshirt.
She pokes it with her hand and looks up to him, "Why are you still wearing it?"
Rick lets out a slow breath, Beth's head rising and falling in time with his chest.
"That's no important right now." He brushes off. "You're deflecting." He looks down at her, running his hand up and down her back. "Tell me what's wrong, Beth."
She sighs, "I don't even know where to being…" She pulls her glasses off and tosses them next to them on the bed. She wipes at her eyes in frustration. "Everything was going okay this year. We were all happy and working great as a team after last year, but then it seems like everything is changing.
"I feel like we're all at different places after last year. And after what Courtney told us tonight, and what Sylvester said about his sister, I basically told my parents to not be involved in my life! Like how crazy is that? You remember how I used to sit at the lunch table and have lunch with them on facetime? Now I hardly speak to them. I'm afraid something will happen to them." She can feel the tears coming again and shuts her eyes.
"Yolanda noticed earlier tonight that something was wrong but I couldn't tell her about it." Rick's hand on her back stilled.
"Why not?" Beth look up at him, he looked down at her in concern, his eyebrows crinkled and definitely not okay with what she said. "I'm sure Yolanda would've talked with you?" He says after a moment, but also sounded very unsure of his words.
Beth rolls her eyes, "You and I both know Yolanda only tolerates me, she's closer with you and Court." Rick opens his mouth to argue, but the look Beth gives him changes his mind. "I know Courtney would have your back, Yolanda just has too much going on that I don't think any of us can really help her with. Sometimes you have to work things out for yourself."
Beth quirks and eyebrow, "Oh, like your hourglass still functioning after, I don't know, three hours?" She narrows her eyes at him. "How is that possible?"
Rick stares at her for a minute and contemplates telling her the truth. But the longer he stares into her big brown eyes, his resolve weakens. He shifts Beth off of his chest to sit up. She reluctantly pulls away and sits back on her knees facing Rick. He glances at her again before pulling off his hoodie, leaving him in the black tank he was wearing earlier at Ripped City.
Beth couldn't help but look at Rick's arms. Sure she's noticed that he was fit a while ago, especially the first time he wore the Hourman suit…but for some reason he seemed stronger…and by the smirk he's giving her he's notice her checking him out.
Part of him wants to tease her about the staring, but he knows he's better off not right now. But he'll file that away for another day.
He taps his hourglass, glowing with yellow sand slowly trickling down endlessly. This piqued Beth's attention away from his strong arms.
"Sylvester made a suggestion on how to fix the issues I was having with keeping time."
Beth looks away from the hourglass and back up to him. "What kind of suggestion?"
Rick holds the hourglass between his fingers, bracing himself from the lecture he knows Beth is about to give him.
"He suggested I take the time limiter out. And it was fixed."
Beth glances down at the hourglass and then back up to Rick and then back down again. He watched as she took in this newfound information. She had a calculating look on her face, he's seen it many times in chemistry class or when she was trying to break a code for the JSA. He always thought it was cute but the way she was analyzing this, he wasn't a fan at the moment.
Beth sighs and glances up at Rick, "It's amazing that you fixed it…"
Rick's shoulders sag, "But…"
Beth grimaces, "But there was probably a reason why the limiter was created. Maybe there are bad side effects to using the hourglass for longer than an hour."
Rick contemplated it for a moment but shakes his head, "My dad would've written it down if there was a negative outcome to using the hourglass for longer periods of time."
"Maybe he never got a chance to test the theory…"
Rick frowns, "You think it's a bad idea, don't you." He looks way from Beth, feeling anger towards her.
Since when do I get mad at Beth?
Beth notices his mood change immediately. "What are some things that have changed since removing the limiter?" Beth grabs the notebook she keeps next to her bed and her purple pen. "Maybe we can document what's happening and decide if it's a good or bad thing being 24hourman."
The anger he started to feel faded as amusement takes place, "24Hourman?"
Beth nods her head enthusiastically, "Well yeah! Can't be Hourman if you're still strong after an hour."
Rich laughs, "Okay, no. I get what you mean, I'm still Hourman."
Diving back in, Beth asks, "How have you emotions been?"
Rick grimaces and shifts against her pillows. "Uh…I guess I feel more confident?"
Beth writes it down in her notebook and looks back up to him, "What else?"
"I feel less anxious in situations that I wouldn't normally feel comfortable in."
Beth tilts her head, "What kind of situations?"
Rick freezes. He knows exactly what he wants to say but he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable. He's sure she feels the same way as he does, but part of him, the part the hourglass doesn't effect, can still speak to him, his doubts are always present.
"Like right now, I probably would need a little more time to open up, but it's easy to talk to you." Rick scrunches his face. "Well, it's always easy talking with you Beth, so I don't know if that is a change or not."
She blushes from the complement and scribbles down more open with others.
"Okay, have you taken it off since flipping it over?"
Almost immediately Rick reacts to the question. He places his hand over the hourglass and glares at her. "I'm not flipping it over, Beth."
Beth sighs and places the book and pen down next to her. "Rick, this is the only way we are going to find out if this is harming you or not; we have to turn it over and take it off." She reaches out and places a hand on his knee in comfort. "I don't want you to hurt yourself, okay?"
Beth tries to shuffle herself closer to Rick. It's a bit difficult since he crossed his legs, and is taking up most of the space on her bed, but she manages to inched a bit closer to him, her knees pressing into his legs.
She looks up at him hopeful. The kind of look that usually makes Rick's knees weak but for some reason he felt detached from that good feeling he has when Beth was close. He noticed it before when he was holding her as she cried. Most of the time he would feel elated and joy when she was close to him. But that didn't happen. It's like his feeling are shut off...
"Oh shit."
Beth tilts her head, "What? What's wrong."
"It effects some of my feelings, the feelings associated with…" He tries to think of the best way to say it without being obvious. "I don't feel joy or happiness the same."
"Like I knew you were upset and needed me, that isn't effected." Beth nods along. "But the feelings I get when I'm around you don't feel the same, like they're less but not completely shut off."
Fuck.
Rick's eye widen at his half confession to Beth and by the look on her face she seems to have come to the same revelation.
Beth hesitates before asking, "What feeling do you get when you're around me?"
Typically Rick would panic at this point but he wasn't, which make huge alarms go off for him. I can't feel any important emotions…
"Everything is just better when you're around. Like, even back when I never talked to you. I always looked forward to seeing you at the lunch table every damn day. You just make my life better." He runs a hand through his dark locks in frustration. How could he put himself in a situation like this?
Rick watches Beth take in the information, her face softens at the confession but Rick still can't reach that good feeling within him. He should be elated that Beth knows everything and be relieved, but instead it's like a glass wall was built within him and is preventing those feelings from leaking out.
"I should be panicking right now but I'm not, this isn't good, Beth…" He reaches out, taking her hand and placing it on the hourglass. "I need you to take it off for me. I don't think I can. Part of me doesn't want to."
Beth nods in agreement, too stunned to say anything else, and turns the hourglass over. The sand stops falling and a blinding gold light absorbs back into the hourglass. Almost instantly Rick feels everything rushing all at once. Beth notices and quickly leans forward to remove the hourglass from around his neck and places it on her nightstand.
She places her hand back on his chest and can see the exhaustion take over almost instantly. "How are you feeling now?"
"Not too good, Doc." He grins. "But I do feel more like myself. I can see why the limiter exists now."
Beth smiles in return, "Well, after a good night's rest hopefully you'll be back to normal." Beth hops off the bed and walks to her bedroom door and turns the lock. She turns off the lamp on her nightstand, leaving only the moonlight illuminating the room.
She motions for Rick to move off the bed, but he groans as he tries to get up. His arms feeling like Jell-O and everything just hurts.
"Now I'm feeling the 1,000 pounds I lifted earlier…" he mumbles to himself. He tries to move again and yelps out in pain.
"Shh! My parents will hear you!" Beth hurries around to the other side of the bed and holds a hand out for Rick to take. He looks at it and then back to her. "Beth, I don't think you can support my weight." Beth rolls her eyes and gestures with her hand again, "I will determine what I can and cannot handle, Rick."
He chuckles and manages to wrap his arm around her shoulders and lean into her, granted he is a bit taller than her, it was a little awkward. But Rick was grateful he can finally feel everything again, even though he wishes it was just his emotions that came back and not the soreness from the day.
Beth manages to help him stand long enough to pull the comforter back and let him sit down again. Rick's thought finally catch up to him and realizes what Beth's doing.
"You're letting me spend the night?" Rick said in disbelief. His eyes widen at her as she continues to the other side of the bed and pulls back the covers to join him. "I could try and go home, Beth. I don't want to get you in trouble."
Beth waves him off as she moves her glasses off the bed and to her nightstand. "My parents won't even know. You didn't leave your car out front did you?"
Rick shakes his head, "No, I parked it a few blocks over just in case."
"Just in case of what?"
Rick an feel himself flush, "I- uh…" great, he can't even talk to her again. "I guess I didn't want your parents to know I was sneaking into your room after, " he looks over the clock on her desk reading 2:00AM in red letter. "Shit, I didn't even realize how late it was when I dropped you off."
"Considering how long you and Yolanda scolded Courtney before, I'm not surprised." Beth looks down and plays with her fingers. Rick knew she was uncomfortable when they basically cornered Courtney at the garage. But in all honesty, Rick doesn't feel the same anger he did when he was yelling at her. A shadow of guilt washes over Rick as he settled into the bed facing Beth. She was still sitting up thinking deeply.
"Hey," he gently takes one of her hands, stopping her fiddling. "I know now that I was too harsh on Courtney. I didn't realize how bad I went in on her, but I can't make excuses for Yolanda. She's still has a lot of anger built up from the last three years and I know she feels betrayed."
"I just want things to go back to normal, but I know they won't." Beth sniffles, fighting off a new wave of tears. His hazel eyes softened (and maybe even a bit sleepy too).
"Come here." He pulls gently on her hand to lay down next to him. He wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him. "I want you to know, like I said last year, that you can talk to me whenever you need to, okay?"
Beth nods her head, "Okay. I just felt bad because a few weeks ago you had said it was pretty cool how my parents were involved with all of this, but after what Sylvester said—"
"It seems to me Sylvester isn't handing out the best advice lately." He says ruefully, glancing over Beth to see his hourglass sitting on her nightstand. "But what happened?"
"I basically told them to get out of my life when it comes to being Dr. Mid Nite."
Rick's eyebrows raise in surprise. "Wow, how did they take it?"
Almost instantly, Rick knew that was not the best thing to say.
Beth buries her face in his chest and cries again. This time Rick felt much different than before. He feels just as heartbroken as she does, he feels angry that she has been keeping this in for however long, and overall, he feels disappointed in himself for not realizing sooner that Beth needed him. That Beth needed all of them and they were too caught up with the Gambler's murder and trying to decide who's good and who's evil.
He failed her.
And this was possibly the worst feeling he's ever had in his life.
"Hey," he rubs her back soothingly. "It's going to be okay. Maybe we should talk about this more in the morning." Beth nods her head in agreement and looks up at Rick who was already gazing down at her. She's never seen him look at her like this before. It was different, even the way he was looking at her while doped up on the hourglass. This felt more intimate and loving. Things she never thought she would associate Rick Tyler with, ever.
Lost in thought, Beth didn't realize Rick was still talking. "…Maybe create a pros and cons list and see if maybe there is some stuff you can tell them and what not to tell them. We'll figure it out."
"Do you think so?"
He smiles, "I mean, you're Beth Chapel, you always figure it out."
Beth's heart swells at his words. She places a soft kiss on his cheek and rests her head back on his chest.
"G'night, Rick."
Feeling himself finally feeling at ease for the first time in a while, Rick places a chaste kiss on her forehead and nestle into his pillow letting sleep finally take him.
"Goodnight, Beth."
